Psilocybin Summer
by HappyLeifEricsonDay
Summary: "This is probably the dumbest thing you've ever done," Tucker stated simply. "You mean the smartest," Sam corrected dreamily. The two of them gazed onward at the scene before them with shared amusement, having already given up all hopes of reigning Danny in.
1. Chapter 1

_Edit: This story is now complete, and I'm not going to lie- I think it might be the best fic I've ever written. So enjoy this bad boy, for my sake!_

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Hi DP fans!

**Fair warning:** This story involves the intake of mushrooms. If you're thinking _gasp, drugs are bad!_ then do I have news for you. I'm gonna say exactly what Sam says in the story: Mushrooms have a bad rep because of the media, because of the government, and because of the warped ideals that Western Culture has perpetuated in their society. They are 100% safe, physically and mentally. In fact they are proven to actually help cure several mental illnesses. Besides, humans have been eating mushrooms for _thousands of years_ before the U.S. government decided that they were oh-so-terrible.

And on top of that, they are fucking FUN. And life-altering. You have not lived if you have not tried them. That is all. *steps off soapbox*

(Also, if you're thinking that doing shrooms is out of character for Sam, I have some more news for you. She's a vegetarian, animal loving, nature obsessed, tree hugger who hates the government and conforming to society. She is essentially a hippie, and she is exactly the kind of person that would do mushrooms.)

**If you don't agree with my view on mushrooms, read this story anyway!** It's really good even if you don't approve!

_Fun fact about the title for those who don't know: **psilocybin** is the main chemical in magic mushrooms, the chemical that makes you trip._

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**Chapter One**

x - x - x

"This is probably the dumbest thing you've ever done," Tucker stated simply.

"You mean the _smartest,"_ Sam corrected dreamily.

The two of them gazed onward at the scene before them with shared amusement, having already given up all hopes of reigning Danny in.

"I feel like we should help him," Tucker said, as a man in a white suit raised a formidable gun to his shoulder and aimed it at Danny, who hovered some thirty feet above him.

"I think he's handling it."

"In the loosest possible sense of the phrase," Tucker snorted.

They were both right. A snowball the size of a small boulder buried the agent before he could squeeze out a shot at the ghost. The air rang with Danny's laughter when he doubled over in midair, clutching his sides. The public park looked like a storybook winter wonderland, and ten other agents stood scattered across the snow, pounding their fists against the inside of their hollow icy prisons, each shaped to look like snowmen.

X – x – X

Earlier that day Danny had woken to a sparkling clean apartment. "Did I forget it was my birthday or something?" he said as he looped his arms around Sam's waist in the kitchen, where she was scrubbing the last of the dishes at the sink.

"Nope," she replied. "Just wanted the apartment to be spotless today." She smiled enigmatically.

"Okay, what are you planning?"

"Don't be so paranoid, Danny." But her sly smile didn't disappear. "Want some tea? It finished boiling a few minutes ago." The whistling had been what had woken him up.

"Yeah sure." He opened the fridge, yawning lazily. But Sam leaned against the door, pushing it closed.

"Don't eat just yet." _Don't ask why, don't ask why._

"What? Why?"

"I uh…" she faltered. "Was gonna take you out for breakfast in a bit. I thought we could relax today."

Danny narrowed his eyes at her. "Okay what am I forgetting? It's definitely not our anniversary."

"Your paranoia is showing again. Can't I just surprise you for no reason? I thought we could relax today since we both have the day off. Plus, it _is_ summer solstice," she added, pointing to the calendar. "I thought we could be pagans today and celebrate the longest day of the year, the way the ancients did." Her eye twinkled when she said that, and Danny still wasn't convinced she was innocent of some sort of plot.

She busied herself with the tea kettle, pouring them each a steaming mug. _Danny is so easy to fool, _she thought to herself.

He noted that she'd broken out the monster sized mugs that he'd bought for coffee during their first college finals week, when they hadn't wanted to bother with that teacup-sized bullshit.

"I want mint tea, I think," Danny said, pulling that flavor down from the shelf.

"I want you to try this new mix of flavors," Sam said. "Sorry I already added it to your water. You'll like it, I promise." She'd used the do-it-yourself teabags that let you put in your own tealeaves.

"What flavor?" Danny said, taking his mug from the countertop.

"Just try it," she said, sipping at her own and enjoying the mix of special tea flavors that she had perfected to cover up the taste of what they were actually drinking.

Danny drank. It was actually delicious. The flavor was very heavy. He usually preferred lighter flavors but this one worked well. It was like raspberry chocolate almost, with a hint of honey, and under that there was a stranger flavor that he couldn't put his finger on. He didn't know what it was but he really liked how it all went together. He peered into the mug at the teabag, and saw that the tealeaves inside were a mixture of dark and white, and were strangely… chunky. Gross, but whatever.

Sam, meanwhile, was putting on music in the adjacent living room, humming to herself. She plugged her iPod into the surround sound, setting it on shuffle on the playlist she had already prepared. It was an assortment of all hers and Danny's favorite songs.

When Danny wandered into the living room clutching his half-empty mug he found Sam lounging in the armchair, gazing happily out the window. "What is up with you this morning?" he said in amusement. She was acting funny, whether she admitted it to him or not.

Sam patted the spot next to her on the armchair- it was cushy and wide enough for them to sit comfortably side by side. It had been a housewarming gift from Jazz when he'd first moved in with Sam last year. Sam threw her legs up on Danny's lap, leaning back against the arm of the chair. "Don't get mad," she said abruptly, flashing him a coy look.

Danny thought he should've known this was an apology for something, if it wasn't his birthday. "Okay what did you do?"

"Finish your tea," she said, her grin only growing wider.

"What do you…" Danny peered into his mug. "Sam. What did you put in here."

Sam had to fight to suppress a giggle. "You _said_ you wanted to try it," she defended. "You never said when… So I thought now was as good a time as any."

"Oh Sam, you _didn't_."

"Sorry, I totally did. Actually I'm not even sorry." Her grin stretched ear to ear. "It's probably going to start kicking in say, about fifteen minutes from now."

Danny was in a state of total shock. "You could have warned me!" he scolded.

"I did. I've been buttering you up for this for weeks," she said, folding her arms. "Don't _worry, _Danny. This is going to be the best day of your life. Just… finish your tea. And relax."

She really was too clever for his own good, Danny had to give her that. He didn't even know you could even _make_ a kind of tea out of mushrooms. That sly, sly dog. It was true, she had been buttering him up about this ever since he'd found out a couple months ago that Sam was partial to magic mushrooms. He had completely flipped his lid at first. Obviously, because _drugs are bad._ That's what he'd always learned. But once she explained herself… his opinion had changed.

Sam could see the wheels turning in Danny's mind as he contemplated his half-finished tea. She knew he wasn't angry; she had converted him already months ago. Once she'd explained, there was no way he _couldn't_ be converted. Because he trusted her, and she was right. Mushrooms had a bad rep because of the media, because of the government, because of the warped ideals that Western Culture had perpetuated in their society. The thing was, they weren't dangerous at all, physically or mentally. In fact they were proven to actually help cure several mental illnesses. Besides, humans had been eating mushrooms for _thousands of years_ before the U.S. government decided that they were oh-so-terrible.

On top of that, mushrooms were _fucking awesome._

The last concern Danny had expressed was a stupid, noble one.

"_What if something happens?" he had said with worry coloring his voice. "What if there's a ghost attack and I'm needed?_"

_Sam had scoffed. "Danny Phantom can take _one_ day off. Between your parents and Valerie, the city will be totally fine."_ He had looked reassured after that.

And that's why neither of them were surprised when Danny finished drinking his tea.

However, neither of them had the foresight to wonder what kind of effect mushrooms would have on Danny's other nonhuman half. For a person's first trip on mushrooms they were only supposed to eat 1/16 of an ounce, otherwise the experience can be overwhelming and unpleasant. So that's how much Sam had put in each of their teas. She never would have guessed that Danny's curious anatomy would respond so strongly to the psilocybin chemical, or she would have given him much,_ much_ less.

Sam knew Danny must be starting to feel it when she stood up and the room seemed to loom around her twice as large as normal. The light coming in from the balcony was especially blue, and when she looked over at the kitchen it seemed to glow orange through their colored drapes.

The first thing Danny noticed was that all the lights in the room seemed to gradually grow brighter. He was gazing at the tiny blue light that meant their surround sound speaker was "on," and as he watched the light seemed to refract and tiny rays glittered outward, like the reflection of a streetlight in a puddle. "Wow... wow!" He didn't realize he had spoken aloud. He also didn't realize he was already much farther along in the 'coming up' process than Sam, whose anatomy was responding to the mushrooms correctly.

Sam pulled Danny to his feet. "It really hits you once you stand up," she informed him, and hit him it did. When she pulled him up he kept rising a little, hovering a few inches from the floor.

"You look… really tall!" Sam said, biting back a laugh. Perception was a lie in the world of mushrooms. Glancing at his feet she realized it wasn't just the drugs talking, he was actually floating, and she fell into a fit of laughter.

Each of them felt a deep vibration all through their veins, a sort of restless physical manifestation of emotion coursing through them, combined with the uncontrollable feeling that absolutely everything was hilarious. Normally the come-up would take thirty to forty minutes, but with the tea that strange time was all condensed into a short period of around fifteen minutes. The two of them roamed aimlessly around their living room, hearing the music while not really hearing it, letting the wave wash over them.

Sam was staring out the window, mesmerized by the swaying branches of the aspen tree planted few stories below. There seemed to be a million billion leaves, and she could pick out each one with detail, they seemed to be arranged in repeating patterns on the branches.

"This song.. is absolutely amazing," Danny said behind her. "I think it might be the best song ever created."

He was floating on his back in the air, hands locked as a pillow behind his head. He couldn't tell if he was currently tangible or intangible, and didn't want to bother opening his eyes to check. He could feel the music running through his body, he could _see_ it, bursts of color on the inside of his eyelids.

Sam, who didn't recognize the song, checked the iPod. _Blue Oyster Cult-_ "_Veterans of the Psychic Wars." _Kind of fitting for the occasion, she thought. The rock band was one of Danny's favorites. And she had to admit, they were absolutely melting her mind with that guitar riff.

And then suddenly, Danny was in front of her, having moved with stunning swiftness. His eyes were wide as he gazed into hers. "Do you realize you have the most beautiful eyes?" He said, as though it were fact. It wasn't love talking, it was definitely the mushrooms. The purple in her eyes seemed to fractalize before him, shimmering unnaturally, impossibly. It was the single most beautiful thing he had ever seen. (It was the first of one thousand times he would repeat that mantra internally today.)

Sam laughed. "You've obviously never looked in the mirror," she replied. And she wasn't lying. Danny's ice blue eyes were like the surface of the arctic sea, and right now there were tiny ripples of glowing green ectoplasm running circles around his irises.

Sam checked the clock on the wall. It had only been about twenty five minutes since they'd drunk their tea. It felt like an hour, but then she always had to remind herself that on mushrooms time didn't make sense anymore.

They spent the next hour laying on the living room floor, listening to the songs play randomly. They watched as the stuff coating the ceiling seemed to coalesce into patterns and shapes, forming and reforming and reforming. Danny's fingers were running back and forth through her hair, and neither of them were fully aware of it but it felt really, really good.

They seemed to waver between bursts of crazy conversation and comfortable silence. Sam had had some of her most philosophical insights of life while under the influence of mushrooms, so she let Danny babble on and on, not worrying when what he was saying didn't make any sense. They talked about the music, the colors, ghosts, love, life's mysteries, the way their refrigerator looked like it had a face, anything and everything.

At one point Danny burst out laughing after a few consecutive minutes silently pondering the reflection on the blank television screen, causing Sam to jump. "What?" she said.

"Why did you put- _this_ song in the- playlist?" he managed to breathe between fits of laughter. The memory of the song had completely jarred him out of his reverie. He could not imagine why Sam had put this on here.

Sam cocked her head, listening. _Oh!_ She started laughing too. "It was a joke," she managed. "I thought it would make you laugh, and it worked."

The iPod said _Ember- "You Will Remember."_ Danny was shocked at how vividly the memory was dragged up in his mind, he could see it so clearly even though it was years ago. The memory used to be hurtful, attached to the feeling of heartbreak. But now it seemed so utterly hilarious, especially since the object of his heartbreak was laying next to him now, laughing, and completely his. He felt a wave of longing, following by a wash of happiness, and unbidden protectiveness, all in rapid succession. His heart reeled. Sam had described it beforehand, but he hadn't been truly prepared for the swiftness and fullness and fleetingness of emotions.

"You wanna go outside?" he suggested suddenly. The thought came out of nowhere, but once he said it he was completely fixated on it. If the inside of his apartment was this beautiful, he couldn't imagine how amazing it was to be outside.

Sam faltered. "I dunno..." It _was_ amazing to be outside on mushrooms. In fact there was almost nothing in the world more amazing than sitting in nature whilst tripping. It was a fact. But as she looked over at Danny, currently rising a couple inches off the floor, she wasn't positive that it was a good idea. What if he got careless? Let something slip in public?

After half an hour of more music, and debating with Danny, and more music and more internal debating, Sam decided that she _really_ wanted to go outside. That tree below her window was calling to her. Besides, what was the worst that could happen? She should have remembered that even thinking that phrase silently was an invitation for disaster.

Danny, at this point, was seeing fractals in everything. He still hadn't realized that he had left Sam in the dust, and he was currently feeling the equivalent of 1/4 of an ounce and not 1/16. He probably wouldn't have been able to do that math anyway, not right now. The light coming in from the windows seemed to light the room with blue fire, and every reflective surface in the room sprayed off into a thousand tiny stars dancing in his vision. It was freaking sweet.

Once they'd settled on a plan, Danny's excitement level rose one thousand percent. He found he had never been more excited to go ghost in his life. He hadn't said that phrase in a couple years actually, but with a burst of nostalgia he said it now, earning a smile from Sam. "Going ghost!" And he let the icy energy pent up inside him form into two familiar rings of light, which seemed to light up the whole room. The freezing, tingling feeling swept through his body, and it was shell-shocking. _"Woah,"_ he said, leaning on Sam.

"You okay?" she said quickly.

"Yeah," he said. Way more than okay! "It just felt as strange as it did the first time I ever transformed, way back when."

"Mushrooms do that to you," she answered. "They kind of let you experience everything as if it was the first time."

As they stepped out onto the balcony, Sam repeated all her warnings. To be careful, to not show his powers while in human form, to not do anything stupid, not to talk to anyone if he could help it. "I know, I know," he said. He was only half listening. The wind on his face, two birds chirping somewhere close by, a massive rolling cloud overhead, those were the only things he could feel in that moment.

Sam had always secretly wanted to go flying with Danny while tripping, but she was never prepared for how exhilarating and terrifying it would be. Especially since her pilot was on mushrooms himself.

* * *

I only ever write in 3rd person limited POV, so this was interesting for me to write in 3rd person omniscient POV. Please review and tell me how I did! I could really use the feedback.

The next chapter is where it starts to get reeaally interesting.

See you there, I hope :D


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

x - x - x

Danny suddenly grabbed her arm and dove right off the edge of the balcony, letting out a loud childlike whoop. Sam bit back a scream. They swerved into the air just a few feet shy of the ground, twisting and turning like madmen ice skaters, swirling up higher and higher between buildings into the sky. When she saw Danny's eyes were closed she bit back another scream.

Danny had never felt more euphoric in his life. He felt like he _was_ the warm air flying past them. He felt his molecules colliding with the universe itself. Flying hadn't felt this satisfying since he'd first become proficient at it. It was good.

Sam was seeing tracers by now, which meant that as they zoomed past low-lying clouds they seemed to leave a misty sparkling trail behind them, and the colors of the birds flying by bled into the color of the sky like smeared paint. The buildings below seemed to rush by impossibly fast. To both of them the glistening city around them seemed alive with a kind of storybook magical possibility that a person only feels as a little kid.

When they flew downward through Tucker's living room ceiling Sam had to pry her arm out of it's death grip on Danny's. The room was reeling, or was she reeling? She had to steady herself against the wall and shake away the dizzies.

Tucker didn't look up from the screen when they arrived unannounced. He was in the middle of a boss battle in one of his videogames. "Sup guys." By this stage in their friendship Danny couldn't hope to surprise him at all, even if he popped into sight an inch from his face. Tucker was just too desensitized to it.

It took Sam ten minutes to convince Tuck that she wasn't joking. Danny spent that time staring raptly at Tucker's game. He seemed so invested in it you might've thought the fate of the world rested on Tucker getting that final shot in at the dragon boss. Sam might not have known, but at this point Danny was tripping so hard that the colorful action on Tucker's screen pretty much _was_ a reality.

"So let me get this straight," Tucker said, at last pausing his game. (Danny jumped in reaction- he'd forgotten that it wasn't real.) "You guys are tripping balls, and now you want _me _to babysit you? Do you know how stupid that- uhmm, Danny? You alright bro?"

Sam turned to look at Danny, who was slowly opening the lid on the brown trunk which held all of Tucker's spare consoles and controllers, staring into it apprehensively like there was a murderer inside.

"Tucker, you'd better come look, there's a freaking _snake_ in here!"

"What?" Tucker cried, running over to look in the box. But Danny whipped his hand out of the box, crying out in pain, waving his arm around in Tucker's face, who was now screaming bloody murder. Sam about had a _heart_ attack, until she realized that the blue snake with its jaw clenched around Danny's hand was made completely out of ice.

"Danny, you dickhead!" she swore, slapping him on the back of the head as he collapsed into a fit of laughter.

"NOT cool!" Tucker gasped, ripping the ice snake off of Danny. "Well you know, it's _cool,_ but the wrong kind of cool, dude. Although… Jesus Danny, I didn't know you could make something like this!"

Sam peered at the sculpture in Tucker's hands. It wasn't just a solid block of ice. It was segmented like a real snake, covered in intricately crafted scales. Each segment was connected by a joint, so that the entire snake was able to actually writhe around when you moved it, like one of those toy wooden ones. _Danny made that in what, three seconds? _Sam and Tucker were both thinking as they stared at each other. They'd never seen him make anything like this before.

They looked up in time to see Danny floating feet first through the ceiling, grinning at them stupidly. "You guys coming, or what?" he said, his green eyes glowing brighter than they ever did normally, his white hair hanging down messily around him.

Tucker wasn't even reluctant anymore. Who knew what kind of hilarious stunts he was about to miss if he didn't come along? Besides, it was painfully clear that Danny needed a sober babysitter. Sam was still gaping at Danny's ice creation like it was about to come to life and bite her head off. So the three of them took off from Tucker's apartment, and Tucker couldn't help but feel like he was about to have the most ridiculous day of his life. Man, Sam and Danny had better thank him _big time_ for this later. Like with lavish gifts and stuff, of the technological variety.

Danny was aware in the back of his mind that he was supposed to be going somewhere specific, but once they started flying all other thoughts seemed to vanish. Up was down was inside was out, nothing felt real. Suddenly that one Beatles song finally clicked for him: _I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. _It made perfect sense! On top of that, he may as well have been coasting around Saturn on one of her rings instead of around downtown Amity, because that's what it felt like. By the time he touched down on an unfamiliar rooftop Tucker and Sam dropped to their knees, thanking god to finally touch solid ground.

When Tucker finally caught his breath he glared up at Danny to let him have a piece of his mind (probably involving as many swear words as he could string in one sentence), but he stopped short. His friend was sitting cross legged, completely unaware of Sam and Tucker's plight. He was concentrated solely on a ball of glowing ectoplasm that he was balancing between his two upright palms, which in itself wasn't unusual. But when Tucker stared at it he saw that it was a series of insane repeating patterns, like growing fractals of green fire collapsing in on themselves perpetually. His jaw nearly hit the floor.

"_Dude._" He managed to breathe. "How are you _doing_ that?"

Danny jumped, glancing around for Tucker like he'd completely forgotten anyone else was there, and like that the ectoplasm evaporated.

"Sam, how much shrooms did you give the guy?" he asked her incredulously.

Sam looked baffled. "Just a little! I gave him the regular amount for a first timer! I'm on the same amount and I'm only tripping like, a _little_ bit." To Sam, the extent of it was a heightened sense of emotion and perception of light and color, and everything was more funny and fascinating and wiggly than normal. But she was finally starting to wonder if maybe Danny was reacting more strongly to the psilocybin that she could have anticipated.

Danny didn't even hear them. His consciousness was shifting. He was seeing the pattern of the universe itself dancing across the surface of everything around him, refracting in every bouncing photon. He had never been less calm or more calm in his life, and that didn't even make sense. He felt like he was being sifted through the cracks in reality and all that was left of him was icy peaceful Zen.

Danny opened his eyes and saw his two friends staring at him in shock. He looked down and realized he was glowing a brilliant blue, the energy of his icy core felt like it was overflowing into the air around him. Kind of like the first day he mastered the power. With some conscious effort he dulled the light, finally realizing that he was freaking his best friends out a little bit. He opened his mouth and filled his lungs with a deep, deep breath. In. Out. Oxygen had never tasted so delicious. Then he gave his friends a broad smile. "Let's go to the park." And he was sweeping them back into the sky before they could protest.

Tucker was terrified some ghost was going to attack them, or some citizen was going to wonder why Phantom was carting around two terrified humans as he loop-de-looped moronically around buildings, at one point following a flock of birds for several blocks. After the whole Disastroid thing like sixty people had found out about Danny's secret, including their own families and lots of strangers from Amity. But as far as Team Phantom knew, nobody had spilled the beans yet. It was obvious the city wanted to protect its hero from the cold government that wanted his head.

Anyway, the general populace of Amity and the world was still in the dark on Phantom's other life. That being said, they typically _tried_ to be careful. They especially tried to not be seen too often with Phantom in public. It was no secret any longer that Sam and Tucker knew how to hunt ghosts and they cooperated with Amity's ghostly hero along with the other ghost hunting residents of their city, but even so. They didn't want to give anyone a reason to look too closely at Sam and Tucker's relationship with Phantom. That was a dangerous, dangerous road. Especially considering the government sector that was still hunting Phantom to this day, even after he saved the whole freaking world. He may be a hero in the eyes of the public, but according to law he was still an illegal spectral entity. So _maybe_ he should try being a _LITLE MORE SUBTLE, _Tucker screamed internally as Danny looped circles around a section of telephone wires.

These were the thoughts sparking in Tucker's mind as Danny spiraled thoughtlessly through downtown Amity Park, without a care in the world for the citizens that were gaping up at them. At least they were too high to be recognized by face, but Tucker had a bad feeling that he was going to be reliving this escapade later on the 9 o'clock news. Sam, who was thinking the exact same thing, had been covering her face with her hands for the last fifteen minutes. Tucker followed suit.

After what seemed like an hour to Tucker, what seemed like a day to Sam, and what seemed like a blissful eternity to Danny, the three landed on a lofty branch of a tree in the public park. They sat down gingerly, though the branch was the size of all their waists combined. It wasn't in any danger of snapping. Plus, no one in the popular park below could see them through the thick leaves.

"That was _amazing," _Danny said breathlessly.

"If by amazing, you mean the most terrifying thing of my entire life," Tucker snapped. "I really should have known what I was getting myself into," he sighed.

Sam's windblown hair seemed to be stuck in the permanent flyaway position, and she soon gave up tried to tame it. Tucker couldn't help but laugh at his two best friends, whose eyes suggested they were both a million miles away. _Damn, I really gotta try this myself,_ he thought, laughing out loud at the way they were both focusing so hard on the sound of the rustling leaves.

The light breeze would have been nice, but it was way too warm. _Summer solstice, after all,_ Sam remembered. It just pushed all the hot air around and soon Sam and Tucker were sweating. Danny didn't even notice. Ice was thrumming loudly in his veins to the beat of the universe. What he heard was really the sound of his own heart beating in his ears, but he didn't know that. It sounded like harmony. He did eventually notice Sam waving her hand at her face in an attempt to cool off though, and that was all the push he needed.

Sam felt something amazingly refreshing touch her left shoulder. She glanced over as it melted, a soft white snowflake. Three more fell against her cheek, one on her kneecap. Tucker held out his hands appreciatively to catch a handful of falling snow.

"Oh _yes_," Sam said gratefully. "I have never been more grateful for your ice powers."

Danny responded to the enthusiasm by increasing the output of snow from his hand, sending gust of snowflakes reigning down around them, fluttering down through the branches to the grass below.

"Hey!" a small voice cried below. "Is this… SNOW?" The three friends peered warily through the branches below their feet and saw a little blonde girl gazing directly up at them through a gap in the leaves.

Hiding place compromised! Abandon ship! That's what Sam and Tucker were thinking.

They heard the little girl gasp. "Holy cow, is that _Danny_ _Phantom _up there? Hey! Hey, Danny!" she started waving her arms frantically, jumping up and down.

_Shh!_ Sam thought at the girl. _Curse Danny and his stupid recognizable hair, and his stupid recognizable suit! His stupid recognizable stupid ghost face._

Danny was already phasing down through the branches, without so much as a word to Sam and Tucker who were now stranded at the top of a monumental tree.

_Yeah, I'm never trip-sitting again,_ Tucker thought dryly. _I could have beaten that boss level twenty times over by now._

Danny popped into visibility just above the little girl, smiling a bit too widely. "Hi!" he said.

"It _is_ you!" she screeched, grabbing at the front of his shirt. Danny thought it was adorable- the girl couldn't have been older than five. "Jimmy, get over here will you!_ Danny Phantom is here! _Will you sign my face?" she added with dead sincerity as a little boy appeared from the other side of the tree, his eyes popping out of his sockets when he saw Danny floating there.

Danny burst out laughing. "I don't have a marker kid."

Her expression started to fall, but then an idea struck him. "But I do have a better idea," he said brightly, and his hands began to radiate blue light. In a few moments he was holding a kid-sized tiara made of ice. The girl looked like she was about to cry when she took it from him, holding it like it was made of delicate porcelain.

"Don't worry," he assured her. "It won't shatter unless you drop it from like a second-story window. And it won't melt for like two days. That's not just _any_ ice," he added, unable to keep the pride from his voice.

"It's so beautiful," she whispered, placing it carefully on her head. The little boy she called Jimmy poked at it tentatively. "Can you make other beautiful things out of ice?"

"I can make _anything,"_ he replied confidently. He didn't have any evidence whatsoever to back that up- he'd never even tried anything like that snake or that crown before today. But he was one hundred percent confident and serious when he told her that.

"Can you make a sword?" the little boy squeaked hopefully.

Danny grinned, sending a surge of energy to his hands again, lighting up the kids' faces with blue light. He didn't even have to think about crafting things out of ice in the blissful state of mind he was in. It was so easy. He could just feel the crystal patterns moving from his mind to his fingers, and voila. Soon there was a thick sword in his hands (with dull edges, he'd had to consciously remind himself) and he handed it the to kid, who gaped at it.

By this point several more of their friends had shown up and were all begging for awesome gifts of ice. Danny wasn't even slightly annoyed. In fact he hadn't had so much fun in a long time. He never heard Tucker and Sam yelling their heads off thirty feet above, trying to get his attention from their place trapped on the branches.

When Danny noticed that two of the kids were making snowballs out of the patches of snow on the ground, he was hit with the best idea he'd had all day.

"You guys hot?" he asked the group of kids nonchalantly. "I think it's _really_ hot out here," he lied. Heat couldn't touch Danny these days. The kids all stopped playing with their newfound toys and looked up at him hopefully. "The weather guy said it was going to be 101 today. But I was thinking… maybe some snow." And with that he inhaled sharply and let his head fall back, shooting a blizzard of snow high into the air. The sound of the kids cheering fueled him and he flew up and soared circles around the tree, spiraling further and further outward, releasing a torrent of snow around the whole middle of the park.

Up in the tree, Tucker facepalmed hard. So much for a low profile. Sam was making a mental note to kick Danny in the head later for ignoring every one of her warnings they'd agreed on before she let him go in public.

Within a couple of minutes Danny had turned the entire park into a veritable winter wonderland. The green grass was buried in a thick layer of white, and the branches of the trees were drooping under the weight of the snow. You never would have guessed it was the height of summer. He just couldn't stop himself there though, he had to keep going. He was a man loosed. The only thing he could think about was pushing his newfound command of ice craft to the limits, and he was wondering if he really _could_ make anything.

The kids in the park were wild with snow-frenzy, already in the middle of making forts and snowballs and snowmen, and their parents seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it too. Some waved at him, beaming. A couple cried out 'Thank you!' Once upon a time citizens had run screaming from Phantom, so seeing everyone enjoying his snowstorm nearly made Danny's heart burst. He would be _very _relieved when this ridiculous wave of excessive emotions worked its way out of his system.

Sam and Tucker watched from the treetop with curious fascination as strange spires of ice rose up all around the park. Eerie fantastic sculptures. They didn't look like anything in particular, they were just… strange. And beautiful. Otherworldly. Arches of ice circled and connected to strange columns. The two of them looked at each other with shock. Danny Fenton was not an artist. The idea was simply laughable. So then what on earth was going on in their friend's head?

Tucker voiced the thought they were both thinking. "So, I'm thinking maybe mushrooms have some interesting side effects for ghosts."

"Tucker, I don't think ghosts can even _eat_ mushrooms, or anything for that matter."

"Which is maybe why Danny's brain is overloading like a Windows '98 computer trying to run Modern Warfare."

"Well don't give me that look like it's my fault!" she seethed. "How was I supposed to know!"

It was at that moment that a loud, familiar siren cut through the eerie silence that had fallen over the park, followed by the screeching of many tires. The two friends groaned in unison. Perfect.

But Danny wasn't even slightly perturbed when a dozen government agents dressed in white began pouring into the park, locked and loaded. In fact, he was going to enjoy this.

Sam and Tucker frantically began searching for a way down from the tree. They needed to defend Danny! Sam's heart was pounding in her chest, and she knew if Danny got captured because he was too busy giggling or distracted by a passing speck of dust or a bird or something, that she would never ever forgive herself. Going out in public was _such_ a stupid idea! Not that she'd ever admit that to Tucker. It had sounded so much better this morning.

But the branches were just too spread out for them to climb down alone. They would definitely fall and probably die or break half their bones or something. Danny, meanwhile, appeared outwardly to not have noticed the guys in white at all. He was focused on a small castle of ice that he'd been building for that little blonde girl.

Sam's heart leapt into her throat when she saw the guys slowly converging around Danny. They had opted for stealth, because it didn't look like the ghost had seen them yet.

They didn't know that Danny was _letting_ them sneak closer.

"Watch this," he whispered to the blonde girl who was looking at him expectantly through a window in her small castle. He pointed his thumb over his shoulder without looking, as if it was no big deal, aiming for the nearest crunch of footsteps in the snow. He was rewarded with a muffled yell. He sent two more blasts of ice behind him, which were greeted with two more yells. The girl giggled madly with her hands on her mouth.

He turned around to check how off his aim was, and was pleasantly surprised to see he'd been dead on. Three icy snowmen stood some twenty feet behind him, each encasing an enraged agent banging on the inside. _Yeah good luck getting out of that,_ he thought with a smirk. He'd made the ice five feet thick all the way around.

Then all hell broke loose, at least for the agents. For Danny it was just another part of the leisurely afternoon. He couldn't suppress his laughter as he dodged their attacks with more ease than usual, and encased them one after the other in snowmen cages. He even added brooms and top hats for effect, earning more cheers from the onlooking kids.

"This is probably the dumbest thing you've ever done," Tucker stated simply, up in the tree. He was thoroughly enjoying this but couldn't help but worry that giving mushrooms to Danny had been a really stupid idea. It was obviously having a very strong effect on the poor guy.

"You mean smartest," Sam corrected dreamily. She was no longer even slightly worried.

The two of them gazed onward at the scene before them with shared amusement, having already given up all hopes of reigning Danny in.

"I feel like we should help him," Tucker said, as a man in a white suit raised a formidable gun to his shoulder and aimed it at Danny, who hovered some thirty feet above him.

"I think he's handling it."

"In the loosest possible sense of the phrase," Tucker snorted.

They were both right. A snowball the size of a small boulder buried the agent before he could squeeze out a shot at the ghost. The air rang with Danny's laughter when he doubled over in midair, clutching his sides.

"Besides," Sam added, "It'd be his own dumb fault for getting captured since he left us STRANDED UP HERE!" She shouted the last part in Danny's general direction, though she seriously doubted he would hear her at this point.

After only a few short minutes all of the government agents had been locked away, screaming with rage under five feet of ice. It really said something about the residents of Amity Park that not a single parent or adult there attempted to help release the guys in white from their prisons. They all just smiled and looked the other way.

Danny's laughter slowed and he wiped a tear from his eye, before jolting upright like he'd just remembered something important. It was with a sheepish look on his face that he zoomed up in front of Sam and Tucker. "Maybe it's time to go home," he offered, his hand rested on the back of his neck apologetically.

Tucker's stomach turned over at the thought of another flight with Danny, but it was either that or walk home, and man that did not sound appealing.

When Sam and Danny flew away through his apartment wall they left Tucker heaving over the kitchen garbage can. He was wishing he had sucked it up and walked home.

Sam was all ready to let him have it when they got back to their own apartment. She had a whole speech prepared about how Danny did every single thing she'd told him explicitly not to do. There were bullet points! There were definitely some colorful words on that list, some very not-nice colorful words! But when they phased into the living room the music was still on shuffle from earlier.

Sam didn't have to check the iPod for this one. _Infected Mushroom-_ "_Forgive Me." _The title was kind of depressing but the song was actually ridiculously uplifting.

And she was still tripping after all. It wasn't her fault that her lecture deflated the instant that beautiful melody wafted into her ears. And it _definitely_ didn't help that Danny turned to her and gave her the sloppiest, most puppy-dog smile she had ever seen. Her stomach flipped over. _Woah,_ she thought, caught off guard. They'd been together so long now that it'd been a long time since Danny had given her butterflies that badly. So she was even more caught off guard when he swept her off her feet with a big fat kiss.

When they broke apart a new song was on. One of Danny's this time. _Coldplay-_ "'_Til Kingdom Come." _Danny didn't know how many songs had gone by while they were kissing. They were on the couch now. _Weird, when did that happen?_ he wondered idly.

There was a fair amount of snow coating the edges of the couch and the floor around them. That tended to happen when things got hot and heavy between them. You could say Sam was quite used to it. The coldness didn't bother her. It never did these days. Subconsciously her fingers brushed the heavy pendant hanging on the silver chain around her; it was freezing to the touch. But it was the only thing in the world that felt cold to her anymore. Because of her necklace, the snow was as pleasant against her skin as a gentle afternoon breeze.

Sam sighed, enjoying the relaxing end of the song. She folded her arms on Danny's chest and rested her chin on them, staring unabashedly up at his beautiful blue eyes. She didn't remember when he had changed back to human. "I have been waiting _all day_ to do that," Danny said, grinning. "It's been torture!"

"Not as torturous as being left to rot inside a tree with Tucker," she said, only half-joking. The up-down motion of his chest beneath her was very soothing, and it was downright impossible to be angry at Danny when they were cuddling. It was like trying to be angry at a fluffy cat that's curled up asleep on your lap.

"Any way I can make it up to you?" he said, with a sly grin.

"Make up for leaving me all alone with Tucker? While I was on mushrooms? I don't think that's possible, ghost boy."

"You still feeling it?" he asked, referring to the mushrooms.

She was. She definitely was. The room was three times brighter than it should've been and the snowflakes on the couch seemed to be wiggling around in circles. Plus her heart kept flipping over madly every time he looked at her like she still had some schoolgirl crush on Danny, like how long since _that_ had happened?- but she wasn't about to tell _him_ that. "Yes," she replied. "What about you?" she asked apprehensively. He seemed to be a lot calmer than he was a little while ago.

"Oh yeah. I'm still feeling it." Colors were basically sounds, and vice versa, and he felt like at any moment he was about to become one with the couch cushions. Plus he felt like his heart was about to explode because of the way her hair was falling just so across her face, and he kept eyeing the silver necklace she wore around her neck- which, he couldn't lie to himself, _really _turned him on- because after all she only wore it for his sake. Just looking at it was enough to send his hormones into overdrive. And overdrive, while already on mushrooms, was like atomic warp-speed hyper-drive. But he wasn't about to tell _her_ that.

So instead he just rolled over on top of her, pinning her down against the couch cushions. "I bet I could think of _something_ to make it up to you, if I tried hard enough."

Before she could make another sassy comeback he shut her up by kissing her again. The light pouring in from the balcony glistened like golden rays as the room filled slowly with snow.

The song playing was _Grateful Dead- "__Sunshine Daydream."_

And it really was a sunshine daydream.

* * *

Woohoo! Done! You have no idea how hard it was to write this. Conveying the feeling of being on mushrooms is _freakin' hard. _And ahem.. I'm almost sickened with how proud I am of how FITTING all of those song titles were! I didn't even actually try to do that, I just chose songs I like listening to on mushrooms.. but it's kind of scary how well the titles fit with the story. XD

Also, if you're wondering about that necklace Sam's wearing I'm currently writing another fic about that. (A Touch of Snow.) ;D Maybe you should read it. (The basic idea is that when things get hot and heavy Danny's control over his ice powers gets a little wacky, so Sam needs something to protect her from freezing to death.)

Also also, enjoy the bonus epilogue to this story.

Also also also, review me pleaseandthanksokaybye.


	3. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

x - x - x

Jerry labored up the steps, cursing internally at his aching knees. This was his last stop before the end of his run and he was Tired with a capital T. He was already running way behind on schedule because of some freak ghost incident in the park. The stupid Guys in White had blocked off all the surrounding major roads and he'd been currently passing the park so he was trapped inside the barricade. Not to mention that ghost kid had frozen them all like popsicles so they couldn't get back to their vehicles to get the hell out of his way.

So yeah, that's the kind of mood Jerry was in as he knocked _one, two, three _times on the door of apartment 340. The medium sized package was fairly light. He didn't know and didn't care what was inside. He hadn't bothered with curiosity about his deliveries for ten years.

He heard a faint thumping noise from within, like maybe someone falling out of bed or running into a wall.

A muffled male voice said, "I'll get it!"

A girl's voice seemed to scream from the back of the apartment, "You can't answer the door like that!"

"Oh, right." The guy's voice was just on the other side of the door now. "One sec!" it called to Jerry.

There was a strange searing noise and the cracks around and underneath the door suddenly lit up with a strange blue light. Before Jerry had time to wonder what the hell that was, the door flew open.

A tall guy was standing there rubbing his eye tiredly. He was only wearing striped cotton pajama pants, and his chest was riddled with old scars and faint bruises. _Jesus,_ Jerry thought, _this guy a gangster or something?_ The scars seemed to fit him strangely, since he was on the lean and gangly side and he looked more like he'd be punching keys than punching other guys. That was when he noticed his messy mop of black hair seemed to be littered with… snow?

"Who is it, Danny?" That girl peeked her head around the end of the hallway. Her black hair was covered in snow too. Other than that her bare shoulders suggested she might've been naked, unless she was wearing a strapless shirt. Jerry quickly averted his eyes, not wanting to incur the wrath of her boyfriend in case he really _was_ a gangster.

Jerry's gaze drifted to the floor, around the apartment, up to the ceiling and walls. Huh. Everything in their apartment was covered in a fresh layer of snow.

"That package for me?" the black-haired man said, grinning stupidly.

"Yeah uh… just sign here," Jerry said, offering him his clipboard.

"Sweet, this is probably my headphones, Sam!"

"Great, so you and Tucker can _live_ online in that game? Why don't you just lease an apartment there?" She rolled her eyes and disappeared back down the hall.

Gangster-guy leaned forward and said to Jerry quietly, "She berates me about video games but you'd never guess she was a way more hardcore gamer that _I_ am."

"Right." Jerry cleared his throat, trying not to stare at the icicles hanging down from their hallway ceiling. "Well, I hope you have a good day sir."

"You don't know the half of it," he said with a mysterious smile as he swung the door closed.

_That's it, I'm moving out of this freaking city,_ Jerry thought as he drove his UPS truck away.


End file.
